Echo’s Answer is a psychedelic re-imagining of the life and work of the late visionary singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trish Keenan. The story is told through dreamy reenactments of Keenan’s life and work and interviews with female and nonbinary-identifying musicians, songwriters, and educators inspired by Keenan.
Keenan’s experimental electronic band, Broadcast, recorded five studio albums, toured internationally, and invented a new musical genre, but they did not find much commercial success. However, the popular wisdom about The Velvet Underground applies here: they “didn’t sell many records, but everyone who bought one went out and started a band.” Tragically, Trish Keenan contracted the H1N1 virus while on tour in Australia, which led to her developing pneumonia. After two weeks in the hospital back home in England, Trish died January 14, 2011, at age 42. However, Trish’s, and Broadcast’s, story does not end there. The phrase “Echo’s Answer” is not only the name of one of Broadcast’s songs, but also captures how their influence continues to reverberate today. Despite never attaining mainstream success, the enchanting world that Keenan created lives on through Broadcast’s fans, especially musicians. This long form experimental hybrid doc is the answer to that echo.
In order to crystallize the kaleidoscopic legacy of Trish Keenan and Broadcast, the narrative structure will follow two timelines: one based on ideas, recollections, guesses, and even dreams about Keenan’s life and art. The second, fact-based and chronologically accurate, will follow modern-day tales of artists who listened to and were inspired by Broadcast and how their musical trajectory evolved from there. The film will exist in a liminal space, dipping in and out of each reality and putting them in conversation with each other. Formally, Echo’s Answer will reflect Broadcast’s recording style. Just as Broadcast used a blend of contemporary and archaic audio technology, this film will blend digital and analog filmmaking techniques.
The short film version of this project won the Outstanding Sound award at the 2022 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival. I am currently continuing development of Echo’s Answer as my thesis project for the Media Studies Master’s Degree program at the Parsons School of Design at The New School.
Echo’s Answer is fiscally sponsored by the International Documentary Association, the largest documentary-specific fiscal sponsorship program in the US, established in 1998.
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